76 THE OOLOGIST 
tail: mandibles yellowish-brown; legs 
and feet light orange. Sixteen inches. 
Winter resident? 
The Black-headed gull is by far the 
commonest bird at Vevey and their 
screams may be heard at any hour of 
the day or night. From dawn until 
sunset they wing their way tirelessly 
up and down the shores of the lake, 
ever on the look out for any edible 
morsel. They are great divers, closely 
rivaling our American King fishers,, 
and it is not an uncommon sight to 
see one suddenly fold its immaculate 
wings, drop into the water and emerge 
with a struggling perch or other fish. 
The other gulls, however, are quick to 
notice any such movement and have 
no hesitancy in making their brother’s 
life a burden until the luckless fish 
slips down its captor’s throat. 
Moulting commences very early 
among the old birds and at this date 
(February 6th)» many of them are in 
full summer plumage. The yearlings 
however have not started to change 
to the breeding plumage as yet. 
At sundown hundreds of these birds 
congregate on the rocks along the 
edges of the lake and in places one 
would think that they were plaster 
rather than rock, so white are they 
from innumerable coatings of lime. 
The usual cry is a harsh Kak! Kak! 
Kak! repeated several times. The 
birds have another cry which closely 
resembles that of the Cooper Hawk 
and still another which sounds like 
laughter and has earned for the birds 
their name of Ridibundus. 
The Black-headed gulls nest in large 
communities, placing their nests of 
reeds and decaying vegetation in 
close proximity to each other among 
standing reeds or similar cover. The 
-‘three-or four eggs are greenish-buff, 
spotted and blotched with dark brown, 
black and grey, 2.2 x 1.5 in. 
Out of the breeding season the 
birds may be found following the 
plough in search of grubs and worms 
and in almost any place where there 
is sufficient water. 
It is not a particularly easy bird to 
photograph. Their movements are 
very fast and they are very hard to 
approach unless there is a continual 
stream of bread or other food thrown 
to them. Twenty-four plates were ex- 
posed before the two pictures shown 
herewith were obtained, It was an 
hour and a quarter’s wait after I set 
up my camera before a gull was kind 
enough to rest himself on the pile 
shown in the picture. At last! I said 
to myself, as I pushed the button, but 
imagine my dissappointment a minute 
later on finding that I had forgotten to 
draw out the plate-holder slide! We 
have all been there, and I think it is 
unnecessary to mention the names 
which I called that poor innocent pile, 
gull and camera. After this the birds 
were more considerate and I had but 
fifteen minutes to wait before one’ 
alighted on my pile and allowed me 
to photograph him. The picture of — 
the young gull was a lucky snap-shot 
and although I was trying to photo- 
graph the bird in fight, I had not ex- 
pected him to drop his food so con- 
veniently. 
At what time the birds leave Vevey 
and at what place they carry on the 
duties of reproduction, I am unable to 
say, but as they start nesting in Hng- 
land in April, I should imagine that 
they would leave here sometime dur- 
ing that month. According to~- Bor- 
aston, the English Ornithologist, the 
Black-headed species nests on small 
islands in lakes or ponds throughout 
the British Isles. If this be so, the 
birds may possibly nest somewhere 
in the vicinity of Lake- Leman, but 
it seems more probable to me that 
they fly to some inaccessible spot 
nearer to the coast rather than to rear 
